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Giorgio Cosulich, Getty Images

People crowd the gallery on top of St Peter's Basilica as a helicopter carrying Pope Benedict XVI passes by on its way out of Vatican City Rome, Italy. The Pontiff is flying to Castel Gandolfo where he will cease to be Pope at 8:00pm local time. Pope Benedict XVI has been the leader of the Catholic Church for eight years and is the first Pope to retire since 1415. He will stay at the Papal Summer residence of Castel Gandolfo until renovations are complete at a monastery in the grounds of the Vatican and will be known as Roman pontiff emeritus or pope emeritus.

People crowd the gallery on top of St Peter's Basilica as a helicopter carrying Pope Benedict XVI passes by on its way out of Vatican City Rome, Italy. The Pontiff is flying to Castel Gandolfo where he will cease to be Pope at 8:00pm local time. Pope Benedict XVI has been the leader of the Catholic Church for eight years and is the first Pope to retire since 1415. He will stay at the Papal Summer residence of Castel Gandolfo until renovations are complete at a monastery in the grounds of the Vatican and will be known as Roman pontiff emeritus or pope emeritus. (Giorgio Cosulich, Getty Images)

People crowd the gallery on top of St Peter's Basilica as a helicopter carrying Pope Benedict XVI passes by on its way out of Vatican City Rome, Italy. The Pontiff is flying to Castel Gandolfo where he will cease to be Pope at 8:00pm local time. Pope Benedict XVI has been the leader of the Catholic Church for eight years and is the first Pope to retire since 1415. He will stay at the Papal Summer residence of Castel Gandolfo until renovations are complete at a monastery in the grounds of the Vatican and will be known as Roman pontiff emeritus or pope emeritus.